November 12, 2017

Bigotry

My oldest son, wrestling with a 4-year-old’s happy struggles, is trying to clarify how many people can be his best friend. “My best friends are you and Mama and my brother and …” But even a child’s joy is not immune to this ominous political period. This summer’s images of violence in Charlottesville, Va., prompted an array of questions. “Some people hate others because they are different,” I offer, lamely. A childish but distinct panic enters his voice. “But I’m not different.”

It is impossible to convey the mixture of heartbreak and fear I feel for him. Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.

What a load of crap. Apparently the election of Trump means you just can't trust those white folks.

One of the things that bothers me the most about our political discourse these days is just how blatant so many people are in their bigotry, and I'm not talking about Trump and his supporters. I'm talking about people who, in their anti-Trump hysteria, think nothing of falsely smearing tens of millions of people they have never met and know little or nothing about. The piece at the Times is just another in an endless string of examples.

I wasn't quite 7-years-old when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, but by that time two important concepts had been firmly established in my mind by the most important influences in my life: Parents, church, and school. And those two concepts were:

We are all children of God, created in his own image, and when you commit indignities upon any part of humanity you sin against God.

We must approach and deal with people based on the content of their character, not on superficial traits like the color of their skin.

I didn't find those difficult concepts then and I don't find them difficult today. And in a civil society they should be applied equally to all. I think my life has been better because of those beliefs instead of suspicion and distrust, and I am quite certain that the writer's children would be better served by them as well.

Comments

My oldest son, wrestling with a 4-year-old’s happy struggles, is trying to clarify how many people can be his best friend. “My best friends are you and Mama and my brother and …” But even a child’s joy is not immune to this ominous political period. This summer’s images of violence in Charlottesville, Va., prompted an array of questions. “Some people hate others because they are different,” I offer, lamely. A childish but distinct panic enters his voice. “But I’m not different.”

It is impossible to convey the mixture of heartbreak and fear I feel for him. Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.

What a load of crap. Apparently the election of Trump means you just can't trust those white folks.

One of the things that bothers me the most about our political discourse these days is just how blatant so many people are in their bigotry, and I'm not talking about Trump and his supporters. I'm talking about people who, in their anti-Trump hysteria, think nothing of falsely smearing tens of millions of people they have never met and know little or nothing about. The piece at the Times is just another in an endless string of examples.

I wasn't quite 7-years-old when Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, but by that time two important concepts had been firmly established in my mind by the most important influences in my life: Parents, church, and school. And those two concepts were:

We are all children of God, created in his own image, and when you commit indignities upon any part of humanity you sin against God.

We must approach and deal with people based on the content of their character, not on superficial traits like the color of their skin.

I didn't find those difficult concepts then and I don't find them difficult today. And in a civil society they should be applied equally to all. I think my life has been better because of those beliefs instead of suspicion and distrust, and I am quite certain that the writer's children would be better served by them as well.